Abstract

This paper argues that events in the aftermath of September 11 have intensified a move towards a more authoritarian and regulatory global order. The paper presents two central arguments. First, that the events of September 11 should not be seen in simple terms as a reassertion of US hegemony. On the contrary, the emerging regulatory order is to be found within the internal transformation of the state—a transformation characterised here as the ‘new transnational regulatory governance’. Secondly, we argue that the post cold war global order signals a decisive break with the Westphalian notion of statehood. Notions of hegemony and new imperialism are trapped within the Westphalian framework. In contrast, we argue that the intensification of global capitalism creates the conditions for the emergence of new webs of regulatory governance that link capitalist states together in a way similar to Kautsky’s (1978) notion of ultra imperialism. It is within this version of ultra imperialism that we seek to locate Southeast Asia’s role in the global order.